[Mental Illness 2011; 3:e7] [page 25] Working-aged population’smental symptoms and the use of the Internet

The aim was to study how the working-age population’s mental symptoms had a relation to the using of the Internet. In addition, the aim was to analyze how the mental symptoms had a relation to background information. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting a questionnaire to 15,000 working-age (18-65) Finns. Mental symptoms of responses (6121) were analysed using the model factors age, gender and use of the Internet. Only 0.06% mentioned that they were somehow addicted to the Internet. Based on statistical analyses, age and marital status had an influence on many mental symptoms. The use of the Internet at leisure had an influence on substance addic-tion and fear situations. The importance of the Internet only had an influence on the fear situ-ations. In the future it will be essential to take into account that the use of the internet can affect mental symptoms